The advent of self-serve gasoline stations resulted in lower cost for fuel to consumers. However, it also resulted in a reduced level of safety and convenience to the customer, since the customer is required to exit the vehicle to perform the self-serve refueling procedure. This exposes the customer to inclement weather and the safety risks posed by other moving vehicles in the refueling station and criminal activity in the station.
In response to these issues, several automatic refueling systems have been devised. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,581 discloses an automatic refueling system for a vehicle. The system can refuel a vehicle from underneath the vehicle and requires that a special fuel tank be installed in the vehicle or that the existing fuel tank be modified.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,036 discloses an automatic refueling system with UV-reflective location spots attached to the windshield of the vehicle to locate the vehicle and the fuel filler cap on the vehicle. UV light floods the windshield and sensors detect reflected UV light from the reflected spots as an aide in positioning a fuel filler nozzle close to the fuel fill opening of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,500 describes another automatic refueling system which requires the vehicle operator to monitor and control the refueling operation. The vehicle is outfitted with special communications system, controllable by a foot pedal in the vehicle, which is activated by the operator to transmit information to the refueling system. The transferred information includes the position of the fuel fill cap, the fuel type, fuel filler pipe data as well as customer information including bank account data. Hence, the operator is responsible for both controlling the refueling process and for providing the data necessary for both refueling the vehicle and billing for the transaction.